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Laurier lab takes games seriously

A group of participants discuss ideas on Saturday during a Game Jam at Laurier Brantford's Game Design and Development lab in Brantford. Attendees at the weekend-long event, from a variety of educational institutions in Ontario, were charged with creating new games with a climate change theme.
Brian Thompson/The Expositor

Climate change is serious business but that doesn't mean learning about it has to be time-consuming and tedious.

People like Scott Nicholson believe it can be fun. That's why he and group of others spent their weekend at the Brantford Games Network Lab (BGNlab) trying to change the world by creating games to help people learn about climate change.

"The goal here is to come up with ideas and we'll take the best ideas and try to come up with some games that are both educational and fun," said Scott Nicholson, director of the Brantford Games Network Lab (BGNlab) at Laurier Brantford. "We want to come up with something that will be available to everyone - librarians, teachers, families - and enable them to explore climate change.

"The best ideas will be developed over the summer and we'll have prototypes to test in the fall."

Plans call for the prototypes to be created by students over the summer.

When the project is finished, the prototypes, design documents and research will be released into the Creative Commons to enable game designers from around the world to localize and incorporate the concepts into their own games, Nicholson said.

The event attracted 65 students from 12 colleges and universities, including Western, Brock, Connestoga and Humber, and students from other countries, including Venezuela, the United States and the United Kingdom.

The event was supported by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change. Two representatives from the ministry - James Nowlan and Josh Suderman - were there to answer questions and provide direction.

"This is a next step for the ministry and a way to reach a lot of people," said Nowlan, manager of the ministry's global air issues section. "The first big step was closing the five coal plants.

"Those were large plants and the obvious place to start. Now we're looking at how we can make changes at the individual level and this - the development of games - is one way."

Students could develop games based on "consumables" - the way people consume food, beverages and other products, as well as home heating and municipal planning.

Severe weather was another topic that came up for discussion with a group of students. Nowlan was able to provide information about heat advisories and their impact on people, especially the elderly, as well as ice storms and their affect on communities.

Nowlan also made reference to a heavy rainfall in Toronto on July 8, 2013, when a record-breaking 126 millimetres was recorded within a three-hour period.

The games will be designed for those aged 18 to 34 as they are among the people polling indicates are most interested in climate change.

"There are those who are climate change believers and those who are deniers," Nowlan said. "We don't have to worry about the believers and we're unlikely to change the minds of the deniers.

"But the vast majority of the people are somewhere in between. They are aware of climate change and want to know more and this is a way of helping them."

Headed by Nicholson, the BGNLab opened in 2015 on the main floor of Laurier Brantford's Grand River Hall on Colborne Street. The lab aims to spark engagement and collaboration between Laurier students, community organizations and local game enthusiasts to develop "made-in-Brantford" solutions to improve lives through games and play.